Amanohashidate (天橋立 – Japan’s “heavenly bridge”) is one of the renowned three views of Japan, yet due to its location on the often-neglected Sea of Japan coast it often doesn’t make the cut for many sightseers’ itineraries.

When most people think of Japan and alcohol, they think of rice wine sake. But Japan is also a world-class producer of malt whisky. If you enjoy a good Scotch whisky (Japanese whisky is made in the Scottish style), but haven’t yet tried any from Japan, you’re really missing out!

The other day I finally got around to visiting a place that I’ve wanted to check out for some time: a cat cafe.

No, there’s no relationship to maid cafes or anything like that. It’s not even really a place to get a cup of coffee (though they do offer a small selection food and drinks). It’s a “cafe” more in the sense of an internet cafe and the system is almost identical, except instead of a room full of computers you buy time to go into a room full of cats.

Meow, as a cat lover this was purrfectly right up my alley (sorry, but I wanted to get all the puns out of the way early), so I went to check it out one morning…